Trey Parker is the best. So knowledgeable and easy to work with. Very professional and genuinely…read morecares about the interests of his clients. Highly recommended.

From the owner: Carrell Blanton Ferris & Associates, PLC, is composed of two principal roots, one of which may be…read moretraced to 1996; the other to 1993. In 1996, Dan Carrell, having withdrawn from the partnership of the international law firm of Hunton & Williams, formed with a former colleague a small suburban firm at what is now the location of the Richmond office of Carrell Blanton Ferris. Over the years the firm grew modestly and changed both its name and form. Then, in July 2009, Dan reformed the Firm with Jim Garrett and Jim Van Horn under the name Carrell Rice Garrett & Van Horn, P.C. Eldridge Blanton joined them the following year, when the Firm became Carrell Blanton Garrett and Van Horn, PLC. In September 2011 the Firm combined with Ferris & Associates, PC, a highly respected esteemed Williamsburg law firm focused on estate planning and administration. The Ferris firm had been founded in 1993 by Dick Ferris. In August 2013, the name of the expanded Firm was changed to its present form - Carrell Blanton Ferris & Associates, PLC. The Firm has experienced steady growth since the 2011 acquisition. It opened its Fredericksburg office in 2011 and its Virginia Beach office in 2012. Despite its growth, throughout its history the Firm has prided itself on its professionalism - rendering excellent legal services to clients, for reasonable fees, while maintaining an inviting camaraderie across the entire Firm - among both the lawyers and those in support of their legal practice.

Ms. Thornberry gave excellent representation. Informed me about every aspect of my case. Told me…read moreabout the different requirements I would need in order for the best possible outcome. On the day of court she presented everything to the judge point for point and the result was exactly what I had hoped it would be. I would definitely recommend to anyone who requires an attorney to take a determined interest in their case.

From the owner: Contact Laura M. Thornberry, Esq. for top Williamsburg, VA Family-Law-Attorneys. From adoption and…read morechild custody to divorce and relocation, we have experience and a successful record handling familial issues and disputes.

If you are required to work with this law firm, I highly recommend that you retain your own legal…read morecounsel, and remember: this law firm does not work for the beneficiaries or the trust, they work for themselves. Their goal is to maximize their earnings and minimize their involvement. If you want your case handled appropriately and fully, retain your own counsel who will work only for you. Wilsons does not double check or ask for proof of the worth of any of the physical property involved in the estate that they are overseeing, they take the main trustees word for it. They do not require an appraiser or investigation, a number can just be made up or left out. They also do not ask the trustee to provide a detailed record of the splitting of the total assets and they do not present one to the beneficiaries upon request, or at the closing of the case. They ignore multiple requests for that record, as well as multiple requests to provide copies of the original trust so you can ensure that the original creator of the trust's wishes are being followed, and to ensure that all of the beneficiaries' best interests are being kept in mind. They rush things, and if the trustee is not meeting their fiduciary duties, they brush aside any questions or concerns. A two star review was given because they are decent at organizing the liquid assets and investments of the trust, decent at answering questions on what is required to transfer those assets and investments, and are adequate at ensuring that those items are initially split appropriately. But they do not follow through in ensuring that the entirety of the trust account is appropriately paid out after taxes, or to ensure that any proceeds from sold physical property is appropriately dispersed. They assume that the trustee is doing what they are legally required to do, will not entertain anything that indicates otherwise, and it appears as if they quickly and prematurely close cases to avoid dealing with potential issues. The paralegals are pretty good at communicating, but the lawyers are not. They use the same template for all of their trust paperwork, and my new lawyer found several mistakes where things must have been copied and pasted and put into areas in the creation of a new trust that negated and contradicted several key parts of that new trust. It appears that they either do not understand how to draw up and create trusts, or they do not proofread and make pretty impactful mistakes. To be honest, I felt like their overall approach was evasive. Everything was veiled, nothing was said in plain English, they pushed everything through without being thorough, and they talked around most questions and concerns that were raised. Especially the serious ones. I had mistakenly believed that they were working for the trust and all of the beneficiaries. Now, if I want things split as outlined in the original trust, it looks like it will be a couple years of litigation and lawyer fees, which by then (because no detailed accounting of the physical assets was ever recorded) I assume most of the physical property will be hidden or sold save the few items that I have independent records of. I am on the fence about dedicating that much of my time, as I have been ready to put this entire situation behind me and move on and get used to my life without my loved ones. I am taking some time to think about it to decide if I want to dedicate that much of my energy. If I had listened to the advice I received at the beginning of this entire mess, I would have hired my own lawyer immediately and I would have not trusted that Wilson Law was working in the beneficiaries' best interests. Overall, I do not recommend this law firm. Nothing was done well. And the things that were adequately done certainly did not outweigh the careless, irresponsible, and sloppy handling of this case.

Do you remember the old Ricochet Rabbit cartoons? And there was his sidekick, Droop-A-Long Coyote,…read morewho was as slow as Ricochet Rabbit was hyper and fast? Like, so slow he would pour his pot of coffee, and the coffee was so viscous as it oozed into the cup that he would have to cut the flow off with scissors? Well, Wilson Law was vying for taking over Droop-A-Long's status as slow off the mark. Maybe it was because they weren't going to get that much more business because my brothers' and my father was their original client setting up his trusts and we were dealing with Wilson Law because our dad was now dead. They gave some good initial advice about how our mother disclaiming some of what she initially inherited would have tax advantages for all family members. However, implementing this in a timely fashion was somehow not on offer. In fact, one of the financial institutions where my father had funds already got the death certificate and processed it according to the will before Wilson Law got around to submitting any disclaiming documents, which led to the most interesting incident that caused my brother to completely drop the firm. Completing the paperwork for the inheritance to come through at the financial institution mentioned above for a second account (as the first one mentioned above was processed in late 2023) required my brother to get a medallion signature guarantee in February 2024. He obtained this and sent it to Wilson Law. Wilson Law then claimed that they had taken care of everything pertaining to my father's accounts at the financial institution per my brother's instructions, even though the processing of the first account happened without his participation. My brother begged to differ, but to prove their point, Wilson Law sent him a reproduction of the medallion signature guarantee from February 2024, but they had altered it to add in the transaction that had happened in late 2023. This did not fly with my brother, who of course had the original document. When he sent them evidence that he had caught them trying to gaslight him, he got no response. So, I guess this place is OK if you're still alive and setting up a trust and time is not of the essence. I would not go here if I had a deadline of any sort, because Wilson Law is like the Droop-A-Long of law firms here. And though it's not illegal to attempt to gaslight clients, it does arouse some suspicions of poor judgment. Do better next time!